Empire of Wolves
by Cap.Zeus
Summary: After the dark guild, Tartaros, was defeated, it seemed that Fairy Tail and the other magic guilds could rest easy. "Seemed" was the key word. A new threat is rising; an empire thousands strong seeking to conquer Fiore and beyond and what's worse the empire is led by two Etherious! Will Fairy Tail and the other guilds be able to stop them? Rated M for future chapters.


Prologue

The sunset shone over the massive field of rubble that was once called Cube, the headquarters of the dark guild known as Tartaros. The powerful guild of Etherious was brought low when they went to war with one of the strongest guilds in Fiore, the one and the same that won the Grand Magic Games and sealed the Eclipse Gate: Fairy Tail. Tartaros' entire plan went to ruin when the dragons made a miraculous return, destroying unit after unit of the magical pulse bombs called Face. Now all that was left of them was dust and rubble but even the rubble can be useful.

"See...this is why we left you. How many times did we tell you that your longing for a reunion with our 'father' would result in your downfall?" said a figure, clad in ornate ebony* armor, made of glossy, black plates layered like dragon scales with silver decorative markings. The warrior's dark purple and white cape rested against the ground as he knelt and began to sift through the rubble of Tartaros' headquarters.

"Yes, yes. I'm well AWARE of how much it cost us, especially ME, so you don't need to keep bringing it up. It gets annoying after a while," replied what appeared to be a talking, crimson and dark yellow mushroom with a single eye. In fact this was once a demon of Tartaros known as Franmalth the Armored, a member of the Nine Demon Gates. The Etherious was once able to contend with the fire Dragon Slayer, The Salamander himself, Natsu Dragneel but was defeated and through an unfortunate accident involving an enraged She-Devil had been reduced to his small and weak form. "Now would you mind telling me why we're here?"

The warrior looked to his small companion and grinned under his helmet. "If I told you you'd probably start freaking out over how much it will cost to rebuild all of this. But then again the guild itself is staying in the ground even though we ARE going to bring back something of the guild. And this is where you start thanking me like I'm some kind of prophesized savior," the armored warrior said, chuckling to himself as Franmalth figured out what he meant. A wicked smiled formed on the Etherious' face and started cackling madly, uttering nonsense about having to collect what the fairies owe them. "Ok stop! I said thank me not start laughing like a damn hyena," he said as he turned to the infuriating mushroom. "Now then...let me get back to finding what I need and everything will go according to plan...so long as my message actually worked to my hunters."

Franmalth's eye widened at the mention of the word. "Hunters? W-wha- what hunters?! You never said we were being hunted!"

"I didn't? My mistake. We're being hunted by a man named Jellal Fernandes and his group of renegades. I believe they call themselves Crime Sorcière. We shouldn't have much to worry about though. I sent them a message when I gave one of their members quite a beating. A broken arm, at least 7 broken ribs with some internal bleeding and a mild concussion. Of course it wasn't Jellal himself but it was someone just as powerful I believe. Her name, if I remember correctly, was Sorano or if we're going off of her codename 'Angel'. She was a former member of the Oracion Seis before joining Jellal and his band of misfits," the warrior said as he continued to sift through the rubble.

"I know who she is! Do you know how much it's going to cost us since you drew attention to us?! How much?!"

"Relax. They already knew about me before I found you. More eyes were on my recent activities than I had realized. Apparently they were able to sense the dark magical energy I radiate. If I hadn't created some false trails for them to follow we would have been hounded by all manner of attacks on the way here. Poison, earth, illusions, speed, holy light, and even the very feeling of pain would be used against us. One must admit...it's impressive."

"Magic isn't impressive. Compared to the power of Curses it's nothing! I'm not even sure why you bothered learning both. It was a waste of time just like that whole little empire of yours."

Under the helmet, Franmalth's companion's eyes were filled with rage and he stopped searching through the remnants of Cube. He turned to face the insolent Etherious and retorted, "If you want an example of a waste of time Franmalth...look at Tartaros' plan to use Face. You may have been fine with being tossed aside by Zeref but we weren't! I wasn't content with being Zeref's failed WEAPON like you CLEARLY WERE you incompetent-!" His sentence was interrupted when someone launched several glowing swords at the two. The first missed the ebony clad warrior by a good few feet but the other three merely missed Franmalth by inches, causing him to dodge and move so that he was pinned, but not impaled, by the glowing blades. Looking at the glowing blade, the ebony warrior smiled under his helmet and turned his head to the nearby cliff. "You know...I was wondering if you'd manage to figure it out. I think I hid my tracks pretty well though don't you think Fernandes?" There stood the cloaked mage with his other guildmates in tow. Macbeth, Sawyer, Erik, Richard and Meredy all stood beside Jellal looking down on the person they've been hunting for a month now.

"Franmalth keep looking for what we need; it's a piece of Hell's Core," the warrior said as he drew a massive curved greatsword. Franmalth nodded and scurried away to locate the fragment of the resurrection machine. Erik, or Cobra as he was called in the Oracion Seis, tried to blast the tiny demon with his Poison Dragon Slayer magic but the ebony warrior got in the way and literally cut through the poison blast with his sword. "Well that's not very sporting of you now is it?" the warrior said as he took a battle stance.

"Sporting? You're one to talk bastard," Cobra hissed as his hand became engulfed with poison, ready to launch another attack.

"It was though. You were hunting me and all I did was simply turn the tables. The hunters became the hunted and Sorano was the first victim of that hunt. You can't blame me for something that's MEANT to happen," the warrior replied which triggered Eric into charging. Strikes infused with dark red and black energy are met with powerful metal slashes. "I forgot...you have no idea how resilient these weapons are," the warrior jumps over Erik and tries to stab him in the back but the earth beneath his feet begins to turn to mud and he starts to sink. "Earth magic. Rather clever. However," he reached his hand out, a white magical chain ending in a claw shooting out and grabbing a hold of a piece of debris. The warrior was pulled out of the magic sand trap and moved his arm in a sideways arc, firing dark purple energy blasts at the group of mages. None of them hit their target, however, as Macbeth used his Reflector magic to send them everywhere but near them.

"Damn. Ok new plan," the warrior muttered as he swung himself on top of the debris and infusing his sword with dark purple energy. He then began slashing the air, firing energy-slashes at them. Macbeth simply used Reflector on the slashes that came near him and uttered, "If you think you can hit me, you're dreaming." Everyone else was forced to dodge, an easy task for Sawyer with his speed. Utilizing that magic, he managed to get behind the warrior and tried to kick the warrior off of his perch but somehow the warrior predicted it and as soon as Sawyer appeared, he was blasted with a point blank magic blast. "Sawyer!" Meredy shouted as she saw her guild mate get blasted and sent flying into the rubble. The girl readied her magic and summoned a ring of teal swords around her. "Maguilty Sodom!" she exclaimed as she moved her arm forward, signaling the blades to fly towards the warrior. As easily as he blocked Cobra's poisoned strikes, he deflected the soaring blades aside but one did manage to hit him. He let out a slight shocked gasp as he held his side and smiled beneath his helmet. "Heh...I just recognized that magic of yours girl. Maguilty Sense." Meredy scowled at him and readied another volley of teal weapons. The warrior rushed Meredy, dodging the teal blades as they flew by him. Once he got close enough, Meredy tried to roundhouse kick him in the face but he blocked it with a simple move of his arm, sending some shock into her. That shock was the opening the ebony warrior needed and he took it, grabbing her leg and getting ready to throw her. He grinned and tossed her into the rubble, sending her through one of the concrete pillars that was still standing.

"Marius! I've got it!" called the unmistakably annoying voice of Franmalth. He was holding the part they needed above his head and running toward his partner. Marius looked around trying to find a way to escape but instead saw Jellal rushing toward him. He sighed and moved his hands in a series of motions and then shouted, "Amaterasu! Formula 28!" Erik was running toward Marius to help Jellal when he heard the name of the dark magic, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. As the hand signals were finished, the light of the explosion blinded the independent mages for a while but that short time was enough for Marius. By the time the light had died down, Marius and Franmalth were gone along with the piece of Hell's Core. Erik cursed to himself since both of them got away. "Meredy are you alright?" Richard said as he tended to the wounded former-dark mage. "Y-yeah...I'm fine Richard. Where's…,"

"The knight and Franmalth? They got away I'm afraid using Amaterasu."

"A-amaterasu?!" Meredy stammered as she remembered the only person she knew that magic: Master Hades. She heard that Franmalth was able to use it because he absorbed Hades' soul but he was the only who knew Amaterasu; how he learned it was unknown even to Ultear when she served as one of the Seven. Seeing someone else using that magic was...discomforting for her to say the least. But at that moment her mind raced to another thought: Jellal. "Wait where's Jellal?!" Richard looked around wondering the same thing himself. "I have no idea."

"I got 'im," Eric said with a smirk as he carried Jellal and Racer over to the other mages. "Cocky bastard tried rushing him when he got blasted. He's alive before you ask. So's Racer."

"Nice job Cobra. Oh yeah," replied Richard accompanied by Meredy's sigh of relief.


End file.
